Pocket Change:

Heather Gabel

October 5, 2013At The Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL

Johalla Projects is pleased to announce the next iteration of POCKET CHANGE with Disappear Here, an exhibition of new work from artist Heather Gabel, in collaboration with longtime friend and Alkaline Trio front man Matt Skiba. This special, one night only event will feature mixed media collage and painting, as well as a short film produced and directed by Gabel and scored by Skiba.

The pair's work, like their friendship, is divinely cohesive and seemingly created in tandem when, in actuality, the two live thousands of miles apart. Skiba's contribution to the works on paper is reactionary to the mystical pretense of Gabel's illusory imagery, while his accompaniment to the film is inspired solely by his internal deconstruction of a single photographic environment that transcends both space and time.

Disappear Here endeavors to exile the viewer to a meditative place of solitude that hangs heavy with a duality that is at once alienating and self-affirming. The pieces represent the genesis, completion, and infinite nature of a past, a present, and a future in full command of the power to continually re-manifest itself. The result is deliberate, impenetrable – a fortress of the self, strengthened by the alchemies of birth and death.

The event will feature limited edition prints and apparel available for purchase. A supplementary exhibition will open at Johalla Projects on Friday, October 4th that will feature additional works by Heather Gabel and Matt Skiba and will run until October 25th.

POCKET CHANGE is an ongoing fundraising event series started by JOHALLA PROJECTS and is designed to benefit public arts projects in various neighborhoods of Chicago. Each event at The Empty Bottle will cost $5 for admission, includes a complimentary PBR, and features a music performance. All money collected at the door will go directly to the event’s featured artist to produce a public art piece in Chicago.

Johalla Projects is grateful to have support from its partners in this venture, including Empty Bottle, PBR, Alderman Joe Moreno, and Electric Hawk.